Clinton Beckford, the dean of the faculty of education at the University of Windsor, has been suspended over plagiarism.

In a tersely worded statement issued Monday morning, the university announced that Beckford has begun an “administrative leave” and has been suspended without pay from his position.

According to the statement, the penalty comes “in recognition of an academic integrity breach involving plagiarism.”

The suspension will last until June 30, 2014.

In a phone interview on Monday, U of W president Alan Wildeman repeatedly refused to go into specifics about the nature of Beckford’s plagiarism — such as the number of instances and the extent.

“Those are details that we’re not going to talk about,” Wildeman said. “They aren’t relevant to the bigger issue — which is academic integrity, and the importance of it to the institution.”

Wildeman said Beckford’s publication record was brought to the attention of university administration about two months ago, and a formal investigation took place over a number of recent weeks.

Wildeman would not explain who brought the breach to administration’s attention, or how exactly it was discovered.

“The breach in this particular case involved plagiarism, which means using sources … in an unattributed way,” said Wildeman, adding: “When work appears that is not properly cited, or is not properly acknowledged as coming from a different source.”

Pressed about the severity of Beckford’s plagiarism, Wildeman would only point to the fact that Beckford will eventually be resuming his duties at the University of Windsor as an indicator of the degree of the breach.

“If you look at the kind of sanctions that get imposed as a result of academic integrity breaches, there’s a wide range — often times including termination of employment,” Wildeman said.

“Dr. Beckford has the ability to come back as a faculty member of the University of Windsor. He would not be extended that opportunity were we not completely confident he would be … a contributing member of the faculty.”

But Wildeman said Beckford will not be returning to the dean of education position.

Asked if he’s concerned about how this controversy reflects on the University of Windsor, Wildeman replied: “I think every university is concerned about … the issue of academic integrity. Were we not to take academic integrity very seriously — that would be far worse.”

“We need to be seen to be vigilant about it. We certainly are vigilant about it with our students, and we need to be seen to be doing that (with faculty),” Wildeman said. “That’s the most important issue here.”

“Certainly, we want to hold everyone to the same standards in this.”

Beckford could not be reached for comment.

A PhD graduate from the University of West Indies, Beckford joined the University of Windsor’s teaching staff in 2003.

His areas of research interest are listed on the University of Windsor website as: geography and environmental education, international education, aboriginal education, and education of marginalized groups such as racial minorities, immigrants, refugees and children of war.

Among his published work, the website lists 16 principal publications, three book chapters and two conference proceedings.

Many of his papers have examined teaching for ecological sustainability and Jamaican agriculture — yam farming, in particular.

University of Windsor faculty member Clinton Beckford (far left) points to a region of Africa on a map while faculty and students look on. Photographed in advance of a humanitarian expedition to Tanzania led by Beckford in 2008. (Dan Janisse / The Windsor Star)

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